CHARLES CITY, IA. — Rick Perry spent much of his day Sunday in Iowa churches.

He stopped at Clear Lake Evangelical Free Church, then at First Wesleyan Church in Charles City.

The presidential hopeful sang hymns. In Charles City, he spoke with the crowd for about 10 minutes.

He told the crowd that he had a hole in his spiritual heart until around the age of 27 when he fully accepted Jesus Christ into his life.

He quoted a Bible verse that instructs people of faith to pray for their leaders.

“It’s those that I refer to as the politically correct police who say you can’t bring your faith into the public arena. You will be criticized but don’t be intimidated,” Perry instructed the crowd.

He continued: “Here is what I want you to leave with, somebody’s values are going to decide the issues of the day … somebody’s values are going to be installed. The question is going to be whose values? Is it going to be those of us of faith or somebody else’s values?”

Perry, who sank into the single digits in many polls after a string of campaign and debate gaffes, has recently turned up the heat on courting Iowa’s evangelical base.

In one commercial, for example, he accuses President Barack Obama of having a war on religion and said it is wrong for gay military members to be able to serve openly in the military while prayer in school is prohibited.

Perry, the governor of Texas, shrugged off the notion that he was playing it up for the evangelicals. He noted that he often goes to various churches in his states, which is something he finds very satisfying.

“That’s what I’m about. My faith, I can no more divorce myself from that than I can that I’m a child of a couple of tenant farmers out in the country in Texas,” Perry told reporters. “That’s just part of who I am and I think it’s important for our country to be based as our founding fathers did on principles that are very clearly cemented in Judeo-Christian values.”

OTHER THEMES: In New Hampton and Decorah, Perry stuck primarily to his key campaign talking points about ending burdensome government regulation and eliminating the federal health care reform signed into law by Obama.

Perry was challenged on his energy policy by New Hampton farmer Tom Frantzen, who questioned him about how he would propose saving natural resources and later said his idea to eliminate the energy department could have negative consequences in such things as nuclear power regulation and fair distribution of power along the nation’s power grid.

Perry repeated comments he has previously made, that he is an “all of the above” candidate in terms of expanding energy production in America and that he would end all federal tax credits for all energies.

Frantzen told the crowd that such a plan could have negative consequences and give other nations a fiscal leg up.

He further said that Perry’s call to eliminate the U.S. energy department could have negative consequences, such as with the regulation of nuclear power plants.

SETTING: First Wesleyan Church in Charles City.

CROWD: There were more than 150 people at the Clear Lake church, another 75 or so at the Charles City church and more than 150 people who circulated in and out of the restaurant where he ate lunch. The event in New Hampton had 125 people and 160 were in Decorah.

THE CANDIDATE’S DAY: Perry spoke at the churches in Clear Lake and Charles City. He ate lunch at Dave’s Restaurant in Charles City before making two typical campaign stops, one at the Chickasaw Event Center in New Hampton and the other at Winneshiek Hotel in Decorah.

PLACE IN THE RACE: Perry is on a 44-stop tour that began last week and will wrap up on Jan. 3. (The campaign will take a few days off for Christmas.) Perry today will campaign in Elkader, Manchester, Dyersville and Dubuque.